The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1913. SPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 12, 14 June 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1913. SPORT.

We are sorry to see that the Invercargill branch of the New Zealand Sports Protection League has been associating itself with the Invercargill Gun Club and the Southland Coursing Club in an endeavor to induce the Government to abandon its proposed Bill to make pigeon shooting and coursing illegal. The Sports League was formed with the direct object of protecting all clean branches of sport of whatever description in the Dominion, but the action of the Invercargill branch is calculated to alienate a lot of sympathy and induce some members who have strong feelings on the subject to withdraw their support from the League. This particular conference, according to a Press Association message, carried a unanimous resolution that under a properly conducted : and : managed gun club meeting, conducted under the New Zealand Gun Club, Association rules, there is not the slightest cruelty in pigeon match shooting, and strongly protested against the proposed prohibitive clause for the suppression of pigeon shooting aud Plumpton coursing in a Bill to be brought before Parliament next session. It is almost an impertinence for these alleged "sportsmen" to suggest that no crulty attaches to pigeon-shooting and coursing. Probably the hares and pigeons would have a different story to tell if it were possible to consult them. The promiscuous slaughter and harrying of bird and animal life cannot be anything but cruel, and it is absolutely inexcusable where it h undertaken purely as a spectacle. Every right-thinking man has no hesitation in condemning the "sports" in question, just as he would condemn cockfighting and the shameless horrors of the bull-fight.. At a pigeon match every bird has practically only two chances—one of being shot outright and the other of being wounded and left to flutter helplessly to suffer in the handiest retirement. ' It is seldom, of course, that the birds are not killed outright, for the percentage of misses is very scarce, but still the maiming of the birds does occur at times, and this is quite a sufficient reason for stopping a pastime that can only be demoralising and tantalising in its effects. The practice is the more reprehensible, as science has provided a reasonable substitute in the clay pigeon with its spring which provides quite an efficient test for the cleverness of marksmanship. Coursing we regard as even more undesirable sport. It is surely a "manly" sport for a crowd of men to set loose two speedy greyhound in pursuit of a palpitating little bunch of fur which, even though it may reach the escapes, can only do so with beating heart, and half dead with fright, whilst far too often we read that a course was e*nded by a kill. These two field sports are neither "good for man nor beast." They arc degrading and barbaric and are a blot on our civilisation. We destroy animal life to live ourselves, but the process of providing for the table is very different to spectacular destruction. In a country which prides itself on its modernity neither sport should be allowed to exist for a day longer than is necessary to stay them, and we have every confidence that the House will not allow,itself to be swayed by the plausible representations of interested parties, but will place a measure upon the State Book during the coming session effectually abolishing both these abominable practices. At present they are a standing reproach to our vaunted civilisation to the large measure of protection of fur and feather which we have provided legislatively in other directions.